"Say, Puritan, can it be wrong/To dress plain Truth in witty song: What honest Nature says we should do/ What every Lady does, or would do?" -- Robert Burns

Despite its disadvantages, Scottish rock has railed against consequent ghettoisation to produce a body of music disproportionate to the size of its population. (Thank you, Brian Hogg, for that analysis.)

We're making sure that body never dies. Read, listen, be happy. Be tartan.

Friday, May 12, 2006

Hyping Tigerfest . . . again

Graham Weir, a lecturer in popular music at Napier University in Edinburgh, offers a simple explanation as to why black music has been quite slow in catching on in Scotland.

"We we don't have the same black community like in England which pushes so much music forwards," Weir said in this article. "R&B and drum 'n' bass are underground here, but it's never been mainstream and that's just down to the ethnographic makeup."

However, it's only a matter of time before Scottish hip-hop emerges from the shadows of obscurity and is finally embraced by the listening masses. And it's acts like Edinburgh's Fountainbridge Collective that will be leading the charge. (In the aforementioned article, they are mistakenly referred to as Fan Bridge Collective. Yes lads, you most certainly haven't achieved mainstream status just yet.)

Fronted by a total of four MCs -- who go by the pseudonyms Buckwheat, Buddie Scrape, Fotofit Gringo, and Solenoid -- and backed by a thumping rhythm section, FBC are charismatic, cocksure, clever, and catchy as hell. They'll be playing their brand of head-nodding hip-hop May 13 at The Swamp Bar as part of Tigerfest.